Back in the 1960's when I was a long haired liberal that thought everyone would succeed if just given a good job & a friendly handshake. I even knew back then that those Olympians are mostly spoiled brat rich kids that never have to worry about hitting a job or paying any bills. They can just spend their time 24/7/365 toning their youthful bodies and practicing a particular sport. Practice does create perfection on any human body with a little cooperation from mother nature on have a good skeletal framework. Average bone structure and that time spent practicing are the simple keys. Out practice everybody else. A good diet figures too with high protein. It all points to someone's financial situation a lot more than the physical talent that a person was born with. I haven't watched Olympics in 50 years. Never will.

In the last 50 years, there have been so many exceptional olympic stories and athletes. The miracle on ice team comes to mind first and foremost. Those weren't a bunch of rich brats and they created the greatest upset in all of sports. Rulon Gardner (not a rich brat) upsetting the greatest greco roman wrestler of all time. Most of the athletes in the olympics come/came from the college ranks. They've competed for years putting in immeasurable amounts of time, blood, sweat, and tears while accomplishing other things in life as well (such as a college degree). From my area of expertise, I've yet to see a rich spoiled brat on any USA wrestling team past or present. What it takes to even be considered for the olympic trials is beyond brutal. If you think the heavy majority of USA's olympic athletes don't have lives and responsibilities outside of training for the grandest sporting event on the planet, then you are very misguided. To each his own, but I think your perspective is very jaded and likely comes from the idea that professional athletes now are allowed to compete and that USA now has more resources in place to help these athletes attain their goals. That doesn't make them spoiled brats. It makes them dedicated to the extreme. simply put ... you don't make it to the olympics by being a spoiled rich brat. you've missed quite a bit over the past 50 years.

** Edited by HokiesACC2004 at 8/8/2024, 9:34:21 PM

Like I said, I don't follow the Olympics, sprinters or nothing else. I had to Wikipedia this Bolt. Had quite a career at the Olympics. See he has been retired a while. Do you know what it takes to get an athlete into the condition to win at that level? Never by eating bananas in Jamaica. It took trainers and being financed by Big Money. You might ask why? You think these college football players have NIL value. They are dwarfs compared to the NIL value of a Bolt.

The 20-year-old who trains in his garage at home in Marietta, Georgia

I have read several books on the subject. I use to lift weights I wish I still could. Weightlifting requires such a high intake of proteins within a diet that most of those weightlifters on the championship or show level of a Morris are anemic. I use to eat a lot of pork n beans and lots of meats. Morris is having to eat that high protein diet to the extreme. He is 20 years old. Does he have a good 40 hour a week or even 30 hour week job? If not, who buys all that necessary protein? Vitamin pills will not add muscle unless they are steroids. Not accusing this 20 year old of taking steroids. Somebody wants to enjoy the Olympics, more power to them. I just see most of the participants as privileged individuals. Probably a few exceptions I remember the Russians in USSR days use to take young Russian Olympic prospects into communist government development programs to achieve those medals. They would regularly outdo the US in metal count by doing that government strict development. The communist women dominated and all had shoulders about the size of Morris. Good for the communist propaganda. A shame more propaganda is now released by the US Government. You cannot believe a damn word they say. My giving easy examples would violate board policy. I was 20 or 21 still living with my father & mother lifting those weights. My three sisters long gone. Two were older anyway. My father was a meat & potatoes man and bought the steaks by the handful, had done so as all us kids grew up. My father had never uttered a word previously about anything he bought that I ate. However when I started consuming those steaks big time lifting weights. My father told me to start buying them and I did do. Those steaks were extremely cheap back then compared to now. They cost 10X or 15X as much now. Who is buying them for Morris? Sorry about this sharing. It was noted in a response. However growing up in a family atmosphere of my father's house is my only real comparison to judge these Olympic youths. I just wasn't allowed to be a dead butt doing nothing, much less trying to achieve recognition from medals after I was nearly a man.

Just don't try to lift what you did as a young whippersnapper. I started lifting again around the February/March timeframe, and my arms are probably as large as they've ever been. Am I trying to lift the same weights I did when I was younger? Of course not. But after reading the key to building muscle mass wasn't the amount of weight lifted, but "time under stress." I changed the way I lift. I think the key to "strength" is different. It's based on the amount of weight lifted. I know I'll never be as strong as I was when I was younger, so I might as well concentrate on looking good.

but never forget where they started.

their home countries in the Olympics and World Championships

They had athletes win 36 medals. Cal had 11.

The ACC.

And the B1G getting credit for USC/UCLA/UO/UW. Saw a blog that listed the top 20 schools in medalists, and the top 5 were Stanford, Texas, UVA, Cal, and Harvard. Since Cal and Stanford are now members of the ACC, they get added to anything the ACC does.

back with their former conferences the conference leader is likely a conference that no longer exists, aside from 2 teams, and conferences 2 - 5 are probably bunched much closer than their per school revenues. The USOC is likely second only to the NFL in terms of enjoying a low or no cost development league.

I never really thought about it that way. But in reality what you say is very true.

You can't put a value on that.

** Edited by daveinop at 8/7/2024, 8:40:06 PM

those athletes were trained in the Pac-12, not their new conference. DItto for any OU and UT medals being counted for the SEC.

the school? I believe that should be the deciding factor on determining the medal count by conference. It should be no different if collegiate conferences had their own version of the hall of fame. It is unlikely the ACC would include Derrick Coleman (Syracuse) or Michael Vick in its hall of fame simply because Syracuse and Virginia Tech are current members of the conference. If anything, both athletes are more likely to be members of the Big East's hall of fame because their respective schools were members of the Big East at the time they attended their school.

Same goes for Craig James too.

Without researching I'd guess Cal and Stanford have a lot.

** Edited by Maroon Baboon at 8/7/2024, 11:49:04 PM

If he were around, he would set the record straight on all things Pac-12.